Series
I 501-600
601-700 701-800 801-900 901-1000
T = truisms of life the
world knows;
E = extension of their ideas applied to life situations;
&
= ideas known to be their own
501) When a difficult work defies solution, we are
generally alert all through the day which helps. But if you can locate the block and
remove it, the rest is unnecessary. [No attention is necessary for the clock, after it is
wound]. T
502)
In shifting to the Mind from the vital, the test is no further sensation must be
there. Sensations can be physical, vital or mental.
In fact, it is a shift from manas to buddhi. T
503)
It is always Mother who comes to us. She lies dormant inside and is periodically
pushing towards us. Each time She stirs, life responds positively and pleasantly towards
us. Instead of seeking Her who makes for us, we respond to the pleasant externals. What
comes, stalls. Moving towards the external response is irresistible. The inexorable LAW acts. T
504)
Discipline is never learnt by oneself. It is always learnt only when enforced. It
can either be tyrannically enforced or gently enforced, but enforced it must be. T
505)
Those who do not want to enforce discipline or cannot enforce discipline, cannot
have an organisation unless they recruit people of discipline. T
506)
Yoga is done by people whose self-discipline is learnt earlier than their present
birth. T
507)
To expect people to learn self-discipline is to expect water to move up the
gradient. T
508)
No family will take shape where the head of the family does not enforce the family
discipline. No family can survive when the centre of the family constantly undermines
family culture which is discipline. This happens in high families seeking alliance with
low cultures. Among Mother’s Miracles is one where such families do endure. T
509) Just as we read only when we are interested,
so we should read Mother’s books only when there is aspiration. T
510) Desire is a concentrated power of the vital.
Desire can be overcome either by a higher mental power or by a superior physical
organisation capable of achieving what the desire can achieve. T
511) Ego is an inward-going limited organisation,
needed to achieve within limits. It can be overcome when the same capacity is acquired in
a limitless situation. It is done by a limitless positive vital energy or wide view of the
mind that is energised. E
512) Mind is divisive and is an instrument to
function effectively through division. One can transcend Mind if something in him
perceives the unity of the things outside him. E
513) Ignorance is an extreme capacity of
consciousness to forget its origin so that in action the full concentration will be there.
It can be overcome when we can be conscious of our origin. To fully overcome Ignorance we
must be conscious of our origin in activity.
E
514) Space is divided substance felt by the
consciousness through the sensation of the mind. To go out of space one must be capable of
being conscious of himself directly, not through the senses or the mind. Time is of the
same description but is subjective. To go out of Time, one must go beyond the duality of
subject-object, i.e. be conscious of the object as subject. E
515) Capacity for comprehension is an extension of
existence to Real-Idea. Not to extend oneself like that leads to the sensation of original
Ananda and self-aware consciousness. Comprehension turns the self-aware consciousness into
Real-Idea. E
516) Not to be conscious is to exist. Not to exist
is to lose the structure of existence into non-existence. E
517) To act is to live in Nature. Not to act is to
live in the essence, i.e. the spirit. E
518) Man centered in the actions of desire can move
up to Non-Existence either through action via Supermind or through essence via Overmind or
one of the Purushas. E
519) Psychic is the soul part capable of functioning as
Mind with memory — even the memory of the past life — but not with a will to
execute. It has the capacity to remember, understand, guide, but not the capacity of
deciding, acting or dominating. &
520) Progress comes by awareness. Social
progress comes by social awareness, i.e. when the entire social consciousness takes up a
technological advancement or a type of organisation. The individual progresses to the
extent the society advances, not on his own. T
521) Individual progress comes by individual
awareness permitted and endorsed by social awareness. The individual cannot progress
against the society or without its endorsement. The only scope for the individual is to
persuade the society to accept his enlightenment. T
522) The next stage of progress is for the
individual to become a law unto himself, regardless of the society. The society should
come to accept the choice of the individual’s organisation even as it did with his
worship, thought and political choice. T
523) That way conformity gives way to independent
individuality thus enriching the collective whole. T
524) Except in organised production, the
individual’s way of life must allow him to steer clear of the compelling collective
conformity. That is, most things will be produced by the organised sector while the
individual will choose his own way of life. Materials will be collective, life style will
be personal. T
525) Society accepts not individuals, but
individuals who are accepted by the society. That individual who carries the weight of
society by the force of his personality or the force of ideas is the Leader. T
526) One test of being conscious of something is to
check how much we remember that work while in another work. Taking up hourly consecration,
unconscious people will forget after half an hour that they had taken it up. T
527) To be conscious is to be conscious of the
soul. The tapasvi is conscious during his dhyana. He is unconscious while he is awake. T
528) A realistic yogic beginning demands three
things:
1) Complete parting with the past;
2) Turning around 180 degrees;
3) Forging along the future without
let or hindrance.
Most fail in giving up the past,
since it recurs as thoughts or feelings or habits. To cross that hurdle is difficult. The
next two are equally difficult or more difficult. As a rule difficulty increases with the
advancement in yoga. E
529) Convincing the mind of the futility of past
beliefs is a great help to part with the past. Chewing the cud by recurring feelings is a
greater hazard. This can be cut by a determination not to indulge. Still
the insistent habit will recur. HE advocates a greater tenacity in persistence
than the repetitiveness of the physical as the only solution. E
530) Every man is active, dynamic, forceful,
organised, alert including the lazy man. Only that the expressions are different. Looked
at from the point of view of self-expression, the most useless man and the great leader
are equally dynamic, each in his own way. To know this is wisdom.(Brahmajnana) T
531) The strength of the elephant comes from its
constitution, not from the leaves it consumes. The strength and stamina of each member of
the species are decided by the constitution of its frame and not by the food it consumes. T
532) Man responds most not to the increase of his
energy, capacity, strength, wealth or happiness but to the increase of his enjoyment,
prestige, popularity all of which are attributes of his ego. T
533) Respect, affection, and gratitude are often
seen as real. They are certainly real within certain limitations or conditions. To change
these renders them futile. Respect, affection or gratitude arising genuinely and not out
of the circumscribed situations are rare. Such
people will exhibit these qualities to one and all and irrespective of the circumstances. T
534) Trying to reason with the vital is
unreasonableness (explaining to another how it is right for him to lose; or to convince a
wife). T
535) Perhaps the highest level of human reasoning
of a good man is to realise the utter cosmic truth in the Aphorisms about relieving
another of his pain or altruism. To conceive that altruism is only ego and does no good to
the other, one should transcend mind. E
536) Discipline for one is dissipation for another.
A poor man has to discipline himself into not spending while a rich man has the discipline
of spending. What hurts one expands another. Sexual
purity can either be a discipline or the opposite. T
537) While you are a devotee, only good things in
life will come to you. When you take to yoga, all that happens to you must be received as
good things by you. E
538) The complete detachment of the selfless yogi
from his human relationships and the total oblivious self-centeredness of the selfish man
have one thing in common — intensity of concentration on the self. Only that they are
Self in one case and self in the other. T
539) When an impossible thing (e.g. recovery of a
damaged liver) becomes possible, a sensitive observation gives rise to the sensation of
wonder and gratitude. To accept the good result is the first summary stage. To see how our
trust in the Divine has opened newer ways and feel that emotion is gratitude. To be able
to perceive the minute changes that is the process, the changes that made the recovery
possible is jnanam, knowledge of the process. T
540) Life and its opportunities are enjoyed by
people according to their organisation, attitudes, motives and goals. There are grades in
that benefit. Sri
Aurobindo’s gift of Grace is similarly received at different levels depending upon
their equipment. To know the various grades of receptivity and their circumstances and fix
where we are is a rare knowledge of practical value. T
541) Opportunities are what we create by our
attitude, what we want to enjoy and work for. The economic opportunities of today are
because we use more items and have so chosen the life. Future is for greater economic
opportunities because the world will be using more goods and services. T
542) A discussion to convince one with money that
he should invest in your project is an arduous one.
Consultations
with a partner to persuade him to give up his rights voluntarily for the sake of common
good are endless, mostly infructuous.
Persuasion of a subordinate or a wife to whom you feel loyal and affectionate to
act to preserve your honour or prestige is a vain exercise fruitful to keep you in eternal
tension.
Vichara that discovers how man organises his own folly and enjoys that forever is
jnana. To persuade your personality to practise that jnanam is tapas or yoga. T
543) “A King Idea or a Master act...makes
miracles commonplace.”
To conceive that I am the source of trouble the other gives me is a King Idea. To
give away the project to the partner who wants to push you out is a Master Act. To move to
non-thinking Quiet, to understand what defies thought, to believe that calling Mother from
a shade deeper will not only bring understanding but the solution also, are King Ideas or
Master Acts. &
544) The graded importance of methods:-
The best is consecrated work that expresses your highest consciousness. The next
best is to think out what that work is and what is the basis in thought for it.
When you are not capable of it, reading comes next.
Meditation is the next in order.
Japa is the further alternative. &
545) Mind rejects anything less than Perfect, rather mind is unable to exult itself in
anything less than Perfect while body accepts anything and is satisfied by what is more
than average.
Mind is an idealist, body is practical. Perfect Idealism will meet the needs of
practicality when it crosses into Supermind. &
546) To put every activity of Life in terms of yoga is to
practice yoga in thought. Doing it in terms of Mother, it is Integral Jnana Yoga.
By Nishkamya, Integral Karma Yoga cannot be done. It can be done only by expressing
the Divine Consciousness in the work. Purna bhakti yoga cannot be done by enjoying the
Divine. By enjoying the divine in the emotion
only it can be done. Purna Hatha yoga is not done by purifying it alone but by divinising
it. &
547) Understanding, appreciation of a work,
enthusiasm for it or aspiration to attain it will come only when we are of that plane.
Mind is not moved by emotional acts, rather it looks down upon them. The evolution He
speaks of is in the evolving spiritual plane and we are in the mind. Hence the lack of
appreciation. &
548) The world is governed by a physical
organisation. We are not part of it. We approach it through our mind. Hence it is not
self-evident to us. &
549) ‘I cannot resist it.’ ‘I cannot stand it’.
As long as one is capable of these responses, yoga is out of bounds for him. T
550) If nothing is irresistible to you, the
environment will lose the capacity to take initiative to harm you, i.e. it will lose the
irresistible charm for harming one who moves towards the Divine. T
551) In the evolution of irresistibility to
self-discipline and to equality, it moves, as in other cases, from physical
irresistibility to vital and mental irresistibility. Sometimes
the physical irresistibility comes through the initiative from outside. If that is so, in
the later phases too the vital and mental irresistibility will have the same character of
coming from an external initiative. Having lost your own initiative is good; but, for
perfection, it is also necessary not to respond to an external initiative. T
552) The moment you understand that what happened
just now, irrespective of its character, is Grace, you shift from mind to the psychic.
Anger shifts you from mind to the vital and that is why to counteract anger you are asked
to think.
Accept the IDEA that the other man is made of the same SELF you are made of, you will find yourself
shifting to the Supramental Consciousness. &
553)
When individual human love changes into the divine love, it finds the secret
mystery of the form of Infinite sending forth its call as the divine Flute Player. &
554) Education determines the social status. During
the process of education, the million attractions of that stage are compelling. Success in education is only to those who keep
away from those attractions with discipline. Once the education is over, the boy rises to
a higher status in life and will be unable to mix with those dropouts freely because of
their inferior culture and status.
The social stratum with which it is not possible for him to mix after the
completion of education offers irresistible attractions by the hundreds during the process
of education. The same is true for the devotee. T
555) It is true that all prayers are answered, no
disease attacks, no problem is insoluble for the devotee. For him who takes to yoga, any
prayer may remain unanswered, any disease may occur, even the smallest problem may defy
solution. T
556) Sincerity can be explained as capacity to
recognise one’s rasi (native trait) and willingness to reverse it. Another way
is the urge to utilise his capabilities and capacities to the maximum. It is also the
ability to resist the irresistible. To be able to see the extreme contradictions in his
life and endeavour to reconcile them is also sincerity. T
557) Nothing in this world can be accomplished that
does not minister to man’s self-interest, ego and selfishness. Nothing can be so
accomplished for the Divine. No work for the Divine can ever be done by ministering to
anyone’s ego or yours. It can be done only by the destruction of ego. The only ego
you are at liberty to destroy is yours. T
558) Life response can be studied from every aspect
of action and movement. Time required to complete an act, completion of sequence of
events, completion of all acts required, energy, force, organisation, skill, result, the
grades through which the act should pass, space needed, emotions to be fulfilled, nuances
to be present, requirements of the atmosphere, comprehension that is to be present and
whether the act meets the requirements of its age (the longer the act is in gestation, the
fuller it must meet the requirements of that space of time). T
559)
Growth in man is pronounced, evolution is subconscious in the species or race. Sri
Aurobindo says that the Spirit is evolving in the subliminal. The Life spirit has evolved
the Manomaya Purusha but that is not the end. He asks for the evolution of the Spirit in
the individual. The spirit itself should be conscious of its evolution in Man, revealing
itself in the psychic, and move towards the Ishwara. &
560)
All intensities are short-lived. War
for a government, wedding for a family, thinking for the untrained mind, concentration for
the novice, intense exhibition of loyalty for the unemotional are short-lived intensities.
At the next level, it becomes the routine, recurrent necessity. Making the rare
intensity the unremitting routine, one rises to the next level. T
561)
Survival, growth, (development), evolution:
Survival demands all the skills required by the plane of existence at the minimum
fullness, whereas development demands them at their maximum saturation. Growth is a stage
in between. Development raises the individual through the different stages within the
plane.
Increasing skill and capacities through wider experience results in development,
whereas evolution proceeds on the increasing intensity of essence of experience gathered
in the deeper recesses of personality. T
562)
Tale-bearing, which is a negative individual habit, is the positive state tool for
successful espionage essential for the survival of the government. T
563)
Irresistible interest is there in expressing skill which degenerates into
dissipation which expresses energy. No interest will issue in acquiring the skill which is
drudgery. T
564)
It is the higher plane that evolves or gets the first touch of the pressure of
evolution. For example, the mind can be interested in growth or development or evolution,
not the vital or the physical. All social upward movements are mental. It is the mental
interest that goads the physical to labour. E
565)
The mind above energising the physical leads to the growth or development within
the plane. The mind in the physical plane leads the evolution. The mind in the surface
physical consciousness helps acquire the skill. E
566)
The mind in the physical — the 7th stage — learns the subconscious skill
while that mind obeying the Mind — 3rd stage — is the primary stage of the
learning process.
The 7th stage learns the skill.
The 7th stage obeying unwillingly the 3rd stage is growth; it becomes development
when the obedience is willing.
Evolution is possible when the spirit behind the 9th stage rises to lead the being. E
567)
The old Indian society in the 19th century supported the social forms of caste,
hierarchy, etc. In post-independent India the old hierarchy and the forms of caste have
given way, thus breaking the social form. Mother in forming the Ashram has broken the
conscious psychological forms of fear, inferiority, etc. Yoga can be undertaken when the
subliminal, subconscious Forms are broken. E
568)
Concentration for this yoga is the awakening of the unconscious Force to
consciousness. Consecration is its journey towards the central vision. &
569)
All-inclusive concentration is the Force all over the being waking up. &
570)
Wide massive opening is the total willingness of the entire being to allow the
awakened Force to travel and join the centre of consciousness, rather the Force awakening
to the awareness that it is the consciousness. &
571)
The successful effort to reach the psychic is also indicated by one having drawn
all the essence of his experiences in the past years. Its measure is a measure of the
psychic emerging. E
572) The insistence of the tenacious past can be
graded into 9 parts of our being, the mental by the formation of a thought, the vital as
the first presentation of the move as an impulse and the physical by its silent repetition
without the sensation of an impulse or the accompaniment of an idea. E
573) At different ages men intensely enjoy
different things. Play, food, relationship, property, power are some of these things. The
bhakta enjoys adoring God similarly. At a time when the heart of the devotee turns away
from these enjoyments to HIM in a similar adoration, the bhakta in him is
born.
When the most intense enjoyment issues from the adoration of God, devotion is born.
It is the path from the human to the divine life. E
574) One indication of the death of ego is death
becomes emotionally unreal. &
575) Sri Aurobindo speaks of God laughing at the
soul’s surprise at the disappearance of its woes on its forgetting. This can be used
as a method to solve one’s problems. &
576) Carried to its logical conclusion, this method
can offer us the release of the soul from its bondage. Its counterpart in our yoga is to
seek the soul’s (psychic’s) forgetting the ways of this life, not the life
itself, which lands us in moksha. &
577) Help and service are social conceptions
without having ultimate validity. One can serve another meaningfully only within the
limits of its being serviceable to his own self, i.e. as part of his self-interest. There
is no real ‘service’ beyond that. E
578) Service is there and it is not to another for
the sake of the benefit of the second person. Service,
to be meaningful, must be impersonal, i.e. to the Divine in the other, not to the ego in
the other. E
579) The Divine in us alone can serve and that
service is to the Divine in the other. Human relationships exclude service and friendship
outside the scheme of VALUES of the concerned human beings. Inside the
scheme of values, friendship and service do exist as expressions of culture and do not
contradict the above Law. T
580) That is why VALUES are the medium through which man becomes
divine. The universe of MAN comes to him through his values and the
values we speak of here are the spiritual-mental values while the physical, vital values
enable man to survive, grow and evolve. T
581) Vital preference and opinion combine to create
attitude. Thought, feeling and will together create motives according to the Gita. T
582) The spectrum of the prism, the sadness of the
victim, the death sentence for the accused and the physical body are concrete realities to
the observing child, the victims and the human mind. Inverting the prism, the spectrum
vanishes, sadness turns into joy when the news that caused it is interpreted in the
opposite way, the opinion of the judge renders death sentence powerless. Concrete
realities like the physical body become a vibration of energy when man moves from thought
to consciousness. T
583) Thought can touch the Absolute, perhaps
because it is made of the Absolute. Only that we must move in the thought to its part or
poise that relates to the Absolute. &
584) The higher the aspiration, the stronger will
be the elements that are to be rejected. As long as the latter are less than the
aspiration, things will move. T
585) Mother rewards the patience of man according
to his swabhava, character. She
does it in both the opposite ways, according to the emphasis he lays. When an impatient
man lays emphasis on the result, the result is endlessly postponed. It is not so much Mother as the Law — when a
miser lays emphasis on Mother during a bargain, SHE, through the refractory behaviour of the other
man, gets the bargain settled in favour of the miser for half the price he was originally
willing to pay out of his miserliness. T
586) Wisdom is to discover
— the truth in commonplace statements or proverbs
— emotionally what you know mentally
— fully what you know all along as valid truth
— the intense reality in individual life of what is a general cultural
possession.
— the truth of every opposite to our daily beliefs
— the mental restraint against physical irresistibility
— the truth of impersonal statements personally
— the impersonal truth in personal experiences
— how the other man feels
— the justice in the injustice done to us
— the injustice of our just actions
— that conscience is the adversary
— knowledge in Ignorance. T
587)
Irresistible impulse turns into overpowering Force when transformed through
consecration. E
588)
Property, money, family, etc. give material, psychological security. The higher
truth is they ensure material, psychological insecurity, rather they function like the
security of the addict in the drug. T
589)
To seek personal salvation is the last trace of spiritual egoism. To seek to serve
another or the world is the last trace of mental ignorance, expressing the shades of
egoism of the selfless soul. E
590)
To discover the egoism of our egoless acts is to be really egoless. E
591)
You become what you aspire for is a spiritual truth. Its extension can be whatever
comes into your psychological environs indicates the maximum you can achieve by inner
effort.
Things
enter into the physical, social, psychological and spiritual environs indicating several
levels of possibility in your life. Required effort in the plane the thing enters will
enable you to reach it or possess it — physical effort in the physical plane, etc. E
592)
Irresistibility is outside the pale of spiritual endeavour where all movements are
brought under the control of spirit. The right transformation for irresistibility is
irresistible aspiration of that plane. Only when it loses the character of irresistible
force does it become conscious; till then it will be unconscious. E
593)
The indication that you have the call, you are chosen, you are meant for yoga is
your mind should turn to Him when you are not working, and even through the work the mind
should outreach the work to think of HIM. E
594) Aspiration means irresistible reaching out of
our parts to HIM, not thinking of HIM sometimes. E
595) Irresistible, overpowering aspiration of any
part, opens that part to give us relief or release. E
596) Irresistibility of the whole Being in reaching
Him gives, not release, but the maturity of the soul that ripens the Being. E
597) To be irresistible is to be unconscious. To be
conscious means the Force that is irresistible should be under our conscious control. E
598) To desire, to reach out, to spite, to react,
to respond are all human initiatives, not the Divine moving us to action. When the Divine
moves us to action even that will be irresistible for our human parts. There will be no struggle but the joy of being
overpowered will be intensely felt all over. E
599) Perfection too can be of two levels. The
higher level of perfection takes you to the next higher level while the lower level of
perfection effectively prevents it. E.g. perfect knowledge leads to the soul search while
perfection of worldly enjoyment prevents even knowledge effectively. E
600) It is Grace that does everything for us, even
those things that we initiate and do. When man wants to go away from Grace, Grace can act
to prevent him from that folly or help him go his own way and ruin him thoroughly. Grace
does both to perfection. E
